Sahara launches 10 township projects

LUCKNOW: Sahara India has launched 10 integrated township projects across Tier-II and -III cities in the country spread over 900 acres. It has also launched a new affordable housing brand called Sahara Swapna City that will be built on smaller land parcels across 360 cities.
“There are some special issues around doing real estate. Land acquisition was a big issue, which took time.
Approvals also took time but we have finally got approvals for these projects,” said Subrata Roy, chairman of Sahara India. The company has a land bank of around 27,000 acres across the country.
Each Sahara City Homes project will entail an investment of 500-600 crore while affordable homes projects will require close to 100-125 crore, which will be financed through customer advances and bank funding.
Affordable homes will be sold in the 5.5 lakh to 11 lakh price range. The nine integrated townships under the Sahara City Homes will be launched in Pune, Aurangabad, Jodhpur, Gwalior, Bareilly, Solapur, Porbandar, Katni and Kashipur while one smaller project called Sahara Grace has been launched in Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar. Seven integrated projects are already under construction in Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Satna and Coimbatore.
“We will launch another 21 township and 37 affordable housing projects in FY 12-13,” said Roy.
Roy pointed out that there are issues around real estate projects that have delayed plans in the past. For the 10 new projects that were announced, all approvals are in place and construction has started. In many cities in West Bengal and others, these issues are yet to be sorted out.
Last month, Sahara had announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bangladesh government to develop a new city outside Dhaka and also build affordable housing in the country. It will also build integrated satellite townships in the country.